The Effects of Teen Homelessness on Trafficking and How Course Objectives Were Used to Create a Vivid Informative Webpage to Help Spread Awareness of this Atrocity.

 

 

Teen homelessness and teen trafficking are very heavy subjects, in and of themselves, our team decided to combine them and tackle both. In order to provide a website with valuable information I spent hours and days researching articles, books, and videos.  Using critical reading and writing skills, I would view my sources, make notes, and then step away for a little while to absorb and consider what I had seen.  I would analyze and compare different articles and information almost constantly, but the analysis wasn’t always at the forefront of my mind.  I would be working things through sometimes without conscious thought and then I would have a “Eureka” moment when everything fell into place and made sense.

 

I was able to demonstrate my ability to connect and contextualize the works that I read very effectively.  After careful contemplation, and once I had analyzed everything so that it made sense to me, I would scour the internet for images to match the results of my investigation.  I love researching topics that I find interesting, I spend hours reading numerous articles and making sure I get all points of view.  I do not like to present information that is only one-sided.  When I present something, I want to have all the backup for any questions or arguments that may arise.

 

The literature I read transcended time and place and showed true diversity.  Teen homelessness and trafficking are terrible problems that not only occur in the United States but around the world. Teen homelessness and trafficking can affect teens of every color, creed, and nationality. The many different types of human trafficking mean that there are no single, typical victim profiles. Cases are seen in all parts of the world and victims are targeted irrespective of gender, age or background. The only true constant in all cases is greed.  Without the greed of the traffickers, these people would still be seen as people and not commodities.

 

Interactivity with the viewers was something I found very important.  In order to get my point across, hoping the viewers would become aware and vigilant, I had to draw them in and provide clarity.  In today’s world there is an information overload, if a website is not simplistic and eye-catching viewers can become desensitized to the material.  The viewers may read the material, but it is not absorbed and does not have an impact because there is nothing that stands out or is remarkable to them.  Being concise and direct with the content helped keep the viewer’s attention focused.  Using striking graphics in association with the information presented was helpful because it attracted the viewers and aroused their curiosity.  The graphics also helped the viewers relate more to the problem, by seeing the pictures or videos of people in connection to the text, they were able to recognize that the problem affected real human beings. Another way to allow our viewers to recall the humanity of the victims was by using quotes from people who deal with this problem daily and also by including a poem written by a victim of trafficking.  Creating the class poll with the two questions regarding cause and effect was another valuable way to get our class engaged in our topic.  By asking them to use their critical thinking skills to decide which, if any, question they felt was correct I was able to pique their interest and hopefully whet their appetites for more.

 

We were successful in drawing our viewers in and having an impact based on several positive reviews the website was given.  Amanda Kilgore, demonstrates how effectively she was drawn in by describing how she took her time, fully absorbing our content because she “...was so drawn in by the photos, videos and subject matter.”  She reflected how she could have found herself in this type of situation and was in agreement to our statement that “literature can be a weapon against this epidemic”.  The website was intriguing and painted a story, after viewing it Karina Lopez commented on the story-telling ability by explaining how she “...pictured all the naive adults and teens who are manipulated daily into trafficking.”  Summer Johnson found it “powerful” and was “...shocked by the information you provided, like your poll and the statistics in some of your photos.”  Summer expounded on the impact of the website and our ability to unite everything by saying “...you all tied it together very well. This was my favorite website of them all.”  As stated above, the website had to be eye-catching to prevent boredom and to fully allow our viewers to comprehend the gravity of the problem.  Kanani Batoon showed how that was effectively handled by telling us “What really caught my attention were all the descriptive pictures, quotes, graphs, and videos. They really pulled in the whole theme, and caught my attention to awareness of human trafficking.”

 

When I began my research, I would start to get overwhelmed with the sheer volume of information on the topic and with trying to correlate it to the rubric and standards provided.  I would have to step back from it, take my focus off of the assignment, and allow my subconscious to continue to work on it, while I worked on other things.  In the middle of doing something unrelated, what I was attempting to do, or get across to the viewers would fall into place, I would have clarity and direction.  I did not feel my partners shared the devotion to collaboration and quality that I had.  Starting out, with the group, I was very positive and was hoping for a true partnership.  I assumed the role of leader, as nothing had been done and felt time was counting down quickly.  I sent out numerous emails and discussion posts attempting to spark the desire for collaboration.  I had set up timelines and schedules, hoping we could write our portions and then submit them to each other for review, feedback, and editing. I felt this would allow us to bring more depth to our writing.  Unfortunately, just getting the group members to vote for which topic they would like to work on took much longer than it should have.  Knowing we had a midterm due, I felt they should have given more attention to checking and responding to their email and the discussion boards. Requests for feedback, or even for them to tell me which portion of the project they would like to do were met with silence.  I felt like my emails were falling into a black hole, never to be seen again.  I ended up having to do over half of the written part of the project and 100% of the website.  One day before the project was due, I still had only received one paragraph, from one of our team members.  I sent out repeated urgent messages, as I was doing the conclusion and felt I needed to see what they had written in order to write a relevant conclusion. 

 

The night before the project was due, I explained to them that basically, I have a life too (4 very busy children, a husband, a job, and 5 other college classes) and could not wait until the extreme last minute to prepare the conclusion and also post their portions of the work to the website.  Still no responses, to prepare myself (and my grade) for the possibility that they would not follow through, I mentally prepared to write the entire thing.  Fortunately, at the last minute, 8 hours before the project was due I started to receive their work.  I felt like my partners were more solitary and individualistic than the project called for. 

 

Based on my evaluation, class feedback, and feedback from the general public our website effectively displayed the horrors of teen homelessness and trafficking.  The use of vivid imagery reinforced our message. Informed descriptive writing further captivated our audience and forced them to think about the current day slavery that is going on right beside them.  We conclusively conveyed our call for awareness, vigilance, and action.

 

 

WORKS CITED

 

CSN English 231 Team Presentations and Feedback. Retrieved 9/26/14, from

https://csn.instructure.com/courses/1177996/discussion_topics/2751627

 

Group 11 Collaborative Midterm To Conquer Homeless Youth Used in Human Trafficking Through

Literature. Retrieved 9/26/14, from http://gambettas2lv.wix.com/english231-cmgroup11

 

Transnational Organized Crime Human Trafficking: People for Sale. Retrieved 9/24/14, from

http://www.unodc.org/toc/en/crimes/human-trafficking.html